So what is a good ACT score? The exam consists of four parts: English Language, Reading, Mathematics and Science. Each category receives a score between 1 (lowest) and 36 (highest). Those four scores are then averaged to generate the composite score used by most colleges. The average composite score is roughly a 21. That is, about 50% of test-takers score below a 21.

For students who took the ACT with writing, the writing section is scored on a 12-point scale. The average score is between 7 and 8.

Very few students get a perfect ACT score, even those who get into the country’s top colleges. In fact, anyone scoring a 34, 35 or 36 is among the top 1% of test-takers in the country…

In addition to Isaac Hanemann, Darius Washington also scored a perfect ACT.

There are others as well.

The maximum score on the ACT is a 36. Out of the 1.8 million students who take the test every year, only about 1,000 get the highest possible ACT score. This elusive perfect score places you at the top of millions of high school students and can be a big boost to your college applications.

I scored a perfect score on the ACT.

Most of the advice out there about how to get a perfect score come from people who didn’t get perfect scores. In this exclusive article, I’ll be breaking down exactly what it takes, and the techniques I used to get a perfect score. … It took a lot of hard work for me to learn how the ACT works, how it tries to trick students, and how to find a strategy that worked for myself so I could reliably get top scores. … The ACT is a weird test. It’s unlike tests that you’ve taken throughout school. There’s a specific format to each section, and it tests concepts in ways that are likely different from what you’ve studied in school. It also tends to trick you with lots of bait wrong answers, and if you’re not careful, you’ll continue to fall for these. …

Be ruthless about understanding your mistakes.

What specific skill do I need to learn, and how will I train this skill?

How do I solve the question, and is there a general rule that I need to know for the future?

you have to think hard about why you’re falling short and understand yourself in a way that no one else can. But few students actually put in the effort to do this analysis, and this is how you’ll pull ahead.